Video of Man Getting Thrashed by Mob in Ujjain Shared With Misleading Claims

This video is from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh and is unrelated to the violence that happened in Haryana.

Fact-check: Neither does the viral video show fight between communities after the death of a Hindu youth in Ujjain, nor does it show violence happening in Haryana.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing several men thrashing a man on the streets is going viral on social media with two different claims.

• Some users are linking it to the recent violence witnessed in Gurugram, Haryana.

• While another claim states that the video shows retaliation of the mob after they caught a Muslim youth who allegedly killed a Hindu man in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: The video is from Ujjain and is unrelated to Haryana.

• It shows a mob from the Muslim community attacking a Hindu person outside Kharakua Police Station in Ujjain after a case of molestation was registered against the latter on 28 July.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes, which led us to a tweet by a Hindi daily newspaper from Madhya Pradesh called People's Samachar.

• The outlet shared the same video on 30 July, stating, "During the discussion on the molestation case with a Muslim girl, a young man commented on Mahakal savari."

• According to the tweet, this caused a ruckus, and police also registered a case against the youth.

• Taking a cue, we looked for reports and found India Today's article from 30 July.

• The report stated that Zareen Khan, a physiotherapist, was allegedly molested by a man in Kharakua, Ujjain on 28 July.

• The accused also thrashed the woman and her acquaintance, Taufeeq Khan.

• According to the report, after this incident came to light, the locals in the area surrounded the police station and demanded swift action against the accused.

• The locals were led by two Congress leaders, Noori Khan and Ravi Bhadauria and also demanded that the house of the accused, Hitesh Badwaya, should be demolished.

Statement from local reporter: We reached out to Vijay Yadav, a reporter from Ujjain, who confirmed that this video is from Ujjain and was recorded on 28 July.

• He said that a large number of people from the Muslim community went to file an FIR against the accused at Kharakua police station, after which the main accused was arrested.

• "However, the people of the Muslim community reached the police control room in Kharakua and staged a sit-in protest wherein a man shouted something about 'Mahakal Savari', and his video went viral too. This triggered Hindu people, and hence, they thrashed him," he added.

• He also mentioned that a video of the assault recorded by the doctor also went viral last week.

Conclusion: Both claims are false. Neither does the viral video show fight between communities after the death of a Hindu youth in Ujjain, nor does it show violence happening in Haryana.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)